Activating partnerships with the British and Irish Lions

Thomas Pink partnered with the British and Irish Lions to become its official formalwear supplier for the 2013 Tour. The brief to Pitch was to activate this partnership in a way that would engage and unite rugby fans and target consumers. Our campaign was such a success that we are now working with Pink to activate its partnership with the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour.

Insight
From the outset it was imperative to us that we needed to use the Thomas Pink brand DNA as our strategic starting point; bold, mischievous, quirky and quality. We identified the target audience as being predominantly 30-50 year old males with high spending potential and rugby as their preferred sport.

Execution
The Pink Lion – The Pink Lion in 2012 was a week-long pub takeover of the Red Lion pub in Mayfair, close the Thomas Pink flagship store on Jermyn Street. We rebranded the inside and outside of the pub, renaming it ‘The Pink Lion’ for one week only.
Each night we hosted a different rugby themed event with exclusive access to legends past and present; from a Lions Lock-in with Warren Gatland, to a night with Phil Vickery, to a Question of Sport pub quiz with Matt Dawson. We served up Pink Pints, turfed bars, and rugby themed grub for the punters.

The event was such a success that in May 2013, just ahead of the start of the Lions tour, we hosted another pub takeover on Parsons Green where the second ‘Pink Lion’ event took place on a Saturday afternoon. During the course of the afternoon we staged a rugby tournament with local school children and 5 members of the Lions squad. We also hosted a Q&A for the players behind the bar of the pub where the public could ask them about their hopes and fears ahead of the tour. Matt Dawson was MC for the day and Phil Vickery was in charge of the menu and manned the Barbecue, serving up burgers and hot dogs to the crowds.